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Mourning

In the case of a death people still belief that the body of the deceased must be buried in a proper manner to help the spirit of the deceased to find rest. Mourning is very important for the African people. The idea of mourning goes back a long time and different groups of people have different ways to comfort each other. In some churches they have comforting services after the death of a loved one and before the actual burial. They also have a special service the night before the burial. These services to comfort the people were normally for different groups, such as the men, the woman, the youth and the elders. The service the night before the burial was very long, lasting until midnight and sometimes it lasted until the next morning.

Although this comforting is taking place all over South Africa there are no written rules laid down in any documents about them. The woman of all churches would have meetings of their women’s organisations on Thursdays at their churches and afterwards visit the house of the deceased. Here they will all bring their words of comfort to the deceased’s loved ones.

The youth will pay their visits on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The rest of the church members would normally visit on the other days of the week. When they arrive at the house of the deceased they will normally have a scripture reading, prayers will be conducted and a message of hope for the family of the deceased will be delivered. Depending on the amount of time available there will also be lots of singing. Individuals of the church will also comfort the family members.